Devastation in Louisiana; Obama vacationing in elite Martha's Vineyard and fundraising for Clinton

Yawn... four days ago...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/08/14/president-obama-signs-louisiana-disaster-declaration

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_11cd50b0-6280-11e6-8b9f-bb9cc1f92e83.html

 

btw, while folks with ODS believe Obama is always on vacation, the truth is he takes relatively few vacation days...

 

Bush was not criticized for flying over the devastation of Katrina. He was criticized for FEMA's lack of preparedness, for appointing an unqualified Michael Brown to head that unit as a political favor, and for the belated appearance of the National Guard (and the role of their deployment to Iraq in making them less effective) to save the relief efforts, among other things. Perhaps you can find something that rebukes Bush for not touring New Orleans on the ground, but if you did, it'd be just the tip of the iceberg anyway. The government completely bungled its response to Katrina and Bush deserved the flak he caught. Now, I don't know if this disaster is being handled right, but if they're blowing it it's not because Obama isn't visiting -- unless the plan is for him to be the one handing out water.

 

Actually he was criticized for the flyover. On this board and elsewhere it was said that it proved how little he cared.

 

I anticipated you. It's the tip of the iceberg. If that had been the only thing that went wrong for Bush, I doubt we'd have remembered. By the time he did his flyover, we were already hearing all this news about the desperate situation in New Orleans, that food and water was not being distributed, that the National Guard was not there in force, that FEMA was screwing everything up. In an atmosphere like that, it's really easy to take a pot-shot at the president for doing a flyover because the official response was so bad it looked either uncaring or incompetent.

 

Question....

Doesn't the issue start from the city [Mayor] and then to the state [Governor] and then Government..

Also who says that he's not getting updated constantly?

T_Man

 

While I suspect he was criticized for the flyover, it was part of a larger criticism regarding slow action by federal, state and local government and agencies, poor management on the ground (including Brown), and the belief that response would have been different in a different part of the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina

And honestly, if Obama would have appeared he would have been criticized for making a PR visit. If he visits now he would be criticized for showing up late.

 

That's over two years! Out of eight?

Probably a good thing in his case.

 

I think that's rather misleading. He was set up at his ranch so that he could work from there. Most of those days were probably working vacations. Likewise for Obama.

 

Agreed... while the President is "on vacation" I am certain he gets regular briefings, holds meetings, reviews materials, directs and signs orders.

But somehow the right hand spin is that Obama is the "vacationer in chief" when the reality is he works far more hours than most of his predecessors.

 

Wonder if he had a private server set up at the ranch during those 2 years and if anything nefarious happened there?

Hmm...I wonder.

 

Cheney was on the case. :grin:

I believe most presidential vacations are working ones.

 

Damn.

 

bigotexx's troll game has suffered yugely under Obama. So sad.

 

Don't give me any of your level headed rationale, I need to feed my outrage. Believe me.

Now we're talking. Outraged.

 

Hard to criticize one of the best presidents of all time, but those on auto pilot try anyway.

DD

 

I think texxx is trying to flip the script on Condi shopping on Madison Avenue, GWB rim-jobbing the troops in San Diego, and Cheney hunting in (Wyoming?) while New Orleans drowned.

Nice try.

(dramatic pause for reflection)

Actually, no, it was pretty weak.

 

Bush administration ignored intel about 9/11 from CIA before it happened. His lack of response on this lead to the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil ever. Like you can add all the attacks that have happened under Obama and still be thousands short on the number of victims from that one attack.

Over 22 million e-mails deleted that involve outing CIA operatives on mission among other atrocities.

Misleading intel delivered to Congress and the American public about Saddam having WMDs even though he clearly didn't and there was intel that contradicted Bush administration intel that he did have WMDs.

Iraq and Afghanistan war failure. His administration dragged us into two other countries we helped ravage while claiming we've liberated them leaving us in a quagmire. Stay perpetually in these Middle Eastern countries we had no business invading in the first place to curb terrorism that we helped incite by our invasion or get out as the majority of the American public wanted since it was a war based on lies and bulls-hit and run the risk of terrorist forces sweeping in these now ravaged lands.

The War on Terror failure.

The Great Recession under Bush and a near global economic collapse. I even remember you posting about the DOW and NASDAQ numbers under Bush being at an all time high thus reflecting a powerful and strong economy only to watch that bubble burst. LOL @ you. When the stock market is strong under Obama you say otherwise.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/28/investing/stock-market-democrats-republicans/

His mishandling of Katrina which has already been explained in this thread. Bush was a "likeable" guy but I'm not so quick to forget what a horrible president he was for this country.

Then there's the formation of the Patriot Act.

Then there's No Child Left Behind that's been an enormous failure on our public education system. Children are taught how to pass exams that teachers are dependent on to stay employed instead of actually focusing on specific subjects children are meant to learn. Instead you get illiterate children passing through high school so those school teachers can keep their $40K a year job. Nearly 1 in 5 high school graduates can't even read thanks to that stupid program. And illiteracy has an enormous correlation to criminal activity. His bill has helped breed criminals through our ineffective use of tax dollars.

EDIT: Pretty much the only positive thing I can give Bush administration credit for is their aid sent to Africa.

 

# of 9/11s
George "he kept us safe" Bush - 1
Obama "Saddam Hussein" Obama - 0

Scoreboard?